Is the Government Doing Enough to Stop Sexual Assault on College Campuses? Students Speak Out

With Obama's task force in full effect, we investigate if it can really affect change.

Sexual assault on college campuses has become such a staggeringly pervasive issue that earlier this year, the government took notice. President Obama called on schools across the country to address the problem, and as part of his administration's effort to bring more attention to the matter, created a task force known as the White House Council on Women and Girls.

Around the same time as this encouraging step forward, there was also a step back: Reports began to surface of sexual assaults handled poorly by the administrations of some of the nation's most prestigious schools. The very institutions responsible for educating and protecting the victims were, in fact, unsympathetic to them; the reports painted a grim picture of the problem on a national level.

Of course, this isn't news to many students. In fact, some have been working diligently within their schools for years in an effort to raise awareness about sexual assault and the struggles between victims and administrators.

Take Erik Campano, a Columbia alum who works with Students Active for Ending Rape, or SAFER. He has a personal connection to the issue, having been sexually assaulted in 2011.

"It ripped my life apart," he says. He lost his job, took time off from school, and ended relationships with people who had difficulty dealing with what had happened to him. "Since my assault, I've talked to hundreds of survivors —many at universities—and the scale of the problem has become apparent to me: It's huge."

Still, he's hopeful that the government's increased interest will bring about positive change.

"I think it's wonderful that they're talking about sexual assault at colleges and providing concrete ideas for stopping it," he says. "One thing that's particularly important to me is the role of education, especially for men. It's important for men to talk to other men about what consent means."

Tamara Fernando is a Harvard student who works as a consent, assault awareness, and relationship educator at her school's Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, a victim's advocacy unit independent from the administration. She agrees it's important to involve male students in the conversation, but recognizes that there's complexity to the issue.

"One of the things that always surprises people is that the perpetrators of sexual assault usually commit multiple offenses on college campuses," she says. "So it tends to be isolated individuals who perpetrate this kind of thing and are allowed to get away with it, as opposed to it being a widespread phenomenon across all men at Harvard."

Lindsay Falkenberg, a Yale student who works with her school's Title IX Advisory Board and belongs to a sexual violence awareness group, is happy to hear that the government is recognizing sexual assault as its own category of violent crime.

"It's positive and powerful that there's now federal language specifically addressing sexual violence, because the prevalence and nature of these crimes requires specialized attention and was not adequately addressed by existing violent crime law," she says. Still, she characterizes the administration's work as a "positive but limited effort."

"A task force of government department heads and agency officials cannot, within their human capabilities, account for the nuance of every college campus," she notes. "Something I've learned from being an activist is that students are the only real experts on their schools' culture and sexual climate. Are there a lot of students in long-term relationships? Prominent sports or Greek life? A large LGBTQ presence? A religious affiliation? These characteristics must inform the conversations around sexual violence."

At Harvard, Tamara says, there's a mandatory freshman education seminar that uses both national and Harvard-specific data, covering topics ranging from the school's social scene, to the general risks of participating in campus nightlife, to "ways to be a more active bystander." This course is mandatory for every single incoming student; freshmen can't register for academic classes unless they complete it.

It's clear that while government assistance is promising, students are the ones who can affect the most immediate change. "The internet allows more and more survivors to tell their stories," Erik says, "and institutions simply won't be able to silence victims as well as they have in the past. Teenagers nowadays have a much better understanding of these issues. When I was in high school, this was a completely taboo topic, so I'm really proud of those willing to write and talk openly about stopping sexual assault."

Lindsay points to coeds as a powerful force for change on a large scale as well. "There's incredible potential in student networking between schools," she explains. "Students should help students at other campuses establish and develop their own systems of education and activism."

Nonetheless, it can be discouraging to be inundated with reports underscoring just how widespread the problem is, how unhelpful school administrations can be, and how much progress still must be made.

"It's frustrating, especially because this is such an emotionally-charged issue," Tamara says, citing the "Harvard, You Win" letter written by an assault victim who was dismayed by the lack of support she received from the school. "But it's wonderful to see that people care enough to get riled up about the issue," she adds. In the wake of the letter's publication in the Harvard Crimson, the university president convened a special task force on sexual assault, allowing students to sit on such a committee for the first time.

Lindsay has also seen the impact of student outrage and activism firsthand, and thinks there's certainly room for the government to get involved. Last year, the Department of Education fined Yale for violations of the Clery Act, which requires universities to disclose information about all violent crime—including sexual assault—on or near campus. This compelled undergrads at a recent Students Against Sexual Violence at Yale teach-in to pool their personal resources to cover the costs of bringing speakers and workshop leaders to campus.

"The federal government should rethink the fines it uses to punish violating schools, and instead require or encourage schools to support the student activist work and survivor-centric services on campus," Lindsay says. "Top-down efforts supporting grassroots efforts is a powerful combination."